Lou Donaldson: 01/11/26 — 09/11/24

Although he was born into a musical family in North Carolina, Lou Donaldson only took up clarinet in his mid-teens. After enlisting in the US Navy, he took up alto and his skills brought him into a naval band alongside such luminaries as Clark Terry and Willie Smith. Following his discharge, he came to New York in 1950, and began sitting-in, until he was spotted by Blue Note’s Alfred Lion. Starting with an appearance on Milt Jackson’s Wizard of the Vibes session in 1952, he went on to become a staple of the label, recording his first album as leader that same year.

After co-leading a sextet on record with Clifford Brown, the two of them joined Art Blakey, appearing on the live recording A Night at Birdland in 1954. At this point Lou’s playing was very much in the Charlie Parker mould, but both as a singer and instrumentalist he was drawn to the world of blues and soul, working with Jimmy Smith in 1957, and then several other organists. From then on, his recorded work divided into two distinct categories, there were boppish sessions, alongside funkier soul-inflected records such as Alligator Boogaloo (1967).

Lou worked mainly as a leader from the start of the 1960s onwards, briefly recording for Argo, but returning to Blue Note from 1967-75. He held a long Monday night residency for much of the 80s at Sweet Basil in Greenwich Village, where his quartet, with the impressive pianist Herman Foster, was one of the few places one could go to hear authentic hard bop at the time. I stayed in a nearby apartment for a while and was a regular there, always enjoying the playing, but also the moments when he’d launch into a vocal in his distinctive high voice. He also worked regularly with organist Lonnie Smith, and I recall a great session with them, plus guitarist Peter Bernstein, at London’s Jazz café in the early 90s. He and Smith were reunited for Blue Note’s 75^th birthday concert at the Kennedy Center in 2014. He continued to work until retiring in 2018, but by then his achievements had been recognised by the National Endowment for the Arts and he had become an NEA Jazz Master in 2012.

Lou always had an impeccable sense of style, and alongside great music, many of his Blue Note albums are classics of the label’s design. A Man with a Horn from 1961 catches his distinctive stance on alto, Gravy Train shows him immaculately hatted and jacketed, scoffing a snack, Good Gracious has a candid shot by the great photographer Kwame Brathwaite, while Alligator Boogaloo and Lush Life  target a different market with clever colour shots of female models.